Winged beans can also be substituted with chopped yardlong beans or water spinach (kangkong). The dish can also be cooked with other seafood like squid and can include other vegetables and spices. The shrimp paste can also be replaced with commercial bouillon cubes or meat or seafood stock.[9][10][11]

Gising-gising is very similar to the Bicolano dish Bicol Express in terms of ingredients,[1][2] to the point that spicier versions of gising-gising are sometimes referred to as "Sigarilyas Express".[13]